Lobbying the EU Institutions in a Pluralistic Environment

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1 1. Introduction This Master Thesis examines the stakeholders lobbying of the EU institutions in Brussels and the complexity it involves. In the EU, lobbying is of great importance in order to influence the decisionmakers to make policies that are in the stakeholders interests. The stakeholders are many and there is severe competition in whose interests will gain most attention. The assumption is that the ones with most resources and with economic interests gain most of the attention of the EU institutions i.e. the European Commission (EC), the European Parliament (EP), the European Council and Council, which makes it harder for stakeholders with fewer resources or who are lobbying soft values to achieve the same attention for their cause. It therefore appears to be an inequality aspect among the stakeholders in regards to access to the EU institutions. It appeared as the animal welfare NGOs faced a specific difficulty to make their issues and expertise heard by the decision-makers and people with influence on these decision-makers. Due to this, the question arose about what it was that made it so difficult and if it was the specific subject that caused obstacles. I did not seem as stakeholders within other subjects were exposed to these obstacles. This created an interest to investigate stakeholders within other areas to achieve knowledge about their experience of lobbying the EU institutions and if that differed from the animal welfare stakeholders. On average, the stakeholders interviewed in this thesis have been lobbying the EU institutions for decades and by that influenced the decision-making of the EU under a long period of time. It was not possible to cover such a long period because of the resources it would had involve and has therefore been limited to only include the previous EC under Barosso and the present EC under Juncker i.e. ca It should be sufficient enough, since the previous and the present ECs have significantly different agendas, which is discussed in the analyse chapter of the thesis. A qualitative research was used to investigate the stakeholders experiences of lobbying in Brussels with several of animal welfare lobbyists to examine if they all had the same experience of lobbying animal welfare. Interviews with stakeholders lobbying the environment, consumers, the cities and the agriculture sector where made enabling a comparison of their experience to the animal welfare stakeholders. This was to establish if lobbying different subjects matter in regards to the EU institutions. The purpose behind the interviews was to investigate who they lobby, what approach they used, what obstacles there are, what the main problems are, and if the experiences and views differed within and between the subjects. To achieve an increased understanding of the topic, interviews with decision-makers and people who have influence on these were interviewed as well enabling a view of the aspects from both sides. 1

2 The stakeholders objective is to influence the decision-makers so the end results of the policies of the EU are in their favour. Some of the policies where these stakeholders have been influential are therefore included in order to create an overview of the policy field and an understanding of the stakeholders interests and achievements. It is also to present what the previous EC accomplished and what was prioritized enabling a comparison between the previous and the present ECs priorities. The policies included are within the areas of most of the stakeholders interviewed i.e. animal welfare, environment and agriculture. The stakeholders of the big cities of the EU and the cooperatives are interviewed as well, but the policies within these areas are not provided here. Although, consumers is of interest for the cooperatives and is included in the policies presented. The interviews with these stakeholders were foremost to provide insight of stakeholders within subjects that differs from the others to achieve an additional view of the lobbying arena of Brussels. In regards to theories, pluralism and corporatism has been chosen, since these theories are highly relevant for the topic. The reason for this is due to the EU s pluralistic environment where all stakeholders should have the same access to the EU institutions and be equally included as external sources in the decision-making. The theories are compared to the reality of the lobbying arena in the analysis. Lobbying the EU institutions are considered to be complex due to the solid competition with a high number of stakeholders, therefore interest representation has been included. Interest presentation also has to be presented to create an overview of the lobbying arena in Brussels and to highlight what the competitiveness constitutes. The theories are also discussed in the context of interest representation in the theory chapter. This is to create transparency of the scenery of the arena in Brussels and what is involved, and what it is that is so specific about lobbying the EU institutions, but also to increase the understanding of the issues in the interviews. 1.1 Problem formulation The animal welfare NGOs are strongly represented in Brussels, but competition with resourceful stakeholders and their specific interests make the lobbying of animal welfare a complicated business, which created the following problem formulation: Do the stakeholders within animal welfare experience lobbying the EU institutions differently compared to stakeholders that are lobbying other interests, and if so, why? 2

3 2.0 Methodology 2.1 Synopsis This Master Thesis was initiated by a 6 month internship at Eurogroup for Animals (Eurogroup) in Brussels from September Eurogroup is a federation of NGOs and is lobbying animal welfare in the EU institutions. The Thesis is also based on my 8 th semester project, which lead to lobbying the EU institutions. The project raised an interest for lobbying and at Eurogroup the complexity of it was experienced first-hand and increased the interest to examine it further. The practical experience of the lobbying arena in Brussels should be an advantage in regards to the topic of this thesis where the first-hand knowledge of the topic must be seen as an advantage. Thanks to the fantastic people at Eurogroup, despite being enormously busy, a qualitative research in form of interviews of stakeholders and people at institutions in Brussels could be reality. It is also thanks to all the fantastic people agreeing to be interviewed and who took time out of their busy schedules to meet with me. I cannot thank all these people enough and especially, Andreas Erler at Eurogroup, who put in a lot of work searching for people to be interviewed. 2.2 Limitation The topic is enormous and therefore exclusion of subjects and collected data was necessary. For example, it became necessary to exclude the success rate (see appendix I) because it was not tangible to measure. It would have taken an extended research to make a proper estimation, which was not possible to perform. An overview of the EU s policies of the stakeholders interests is included instead to demonstrate the influences the stakeholders have achieved. Some data from the stakeholders also had to be excluded due to the extensive volume of it. Therefore, the data that was most relevant to the problem formulation was chosen, but should not affect the result. The period was limited to the ECs of Barosso and Juncker, since the data refers mostly to these ECs. 2.3 The project design Introduction and problem formulation This chapter contains the introduction (1.0) and the problem formulation (1.1). The intention with the introduction is first of all to introduce what the paper contains and its outlines, but also to create an interest for the reader to continue to read. It is to create an understanding for the lobbying in Brussels and also new knowledge about the conditions for lobbying the EU institutions. The problem formulation builds on the observations of the situation experienced in Brussels. 3

4 2.3.2 Theory This chapter (3.0) presents the theories where pluralism and corporatism have been chosen, since these are the ones most relevant to the interest representation in Brussels and makes that lobbying arena special. The topic is special and therefore it was necessary with theories which could explain these circumstances to reach an as accurate answer as possible to the problem formulation. No other theories cover the specificity of lobbying the EU institutions as these theories, none of the grand theories either. Pluralism and corporatism are also discussed in regards to the interest representation as a tool to clarify how the lobbying and the EU institutions functions. The competences of the individual EU institutions are also included in this chapter. It appeared most logic to place it there in order to create a flow in the information. The chapter is foremost based on Interest Representation in the European Union by Justin Greenwood (1), Professor of European Public Policy at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, UK, and visiting Professor at the College of Europe and The Art of Lobbying the EU: More Machiavelli in Brussels by Rinus van Schendelen (1), Professor of Political Science at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam, NL, and visiting Professor in North America, China, Middle East and the whole of Europe, and holds seminars (the author of this thesis has attended one thanks to Eurogroup). These professors are specialists in this topic and appeared as most interesting. Additional information from webpages are used as well Introduction of the people interviewed in Brussels This chapter (4.0) presents the people interviewed. The stakeholders are 7 from animal welfare associations, 2 from environmental associations, 1 from a cooperative association, 1 from the EU cities association and 1 from the agriculture sector. People from institutions include 1 MEP from SE and 1 from the NL, a policy officer from DG Agri and a Swedish Permanent Representative. It is divided in two sub-chapters where 4.1 present the stakeholders and 4.2 present the people being lobbied. The choice of these people is explained in the qualitative method chapter The EU Policies This chapter (5.0) presents some of the policies within animal welfare, environment and agriculture. It is only the most relevant policies of the otherwise extensive area. The purpose is to demonstrate what the previous EC had done and started, and to display the influence the stakeholders have achieved, and to create an understanding for the issues, but also because some the policies are mentioned in the analysis. The policies are presented in their original form in Appendix II and are only describe in the chapter and are divided into subchapters where 5.1 is animal welfare, 5.2 the 4

5 environment and 5.3 is the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP). It ends with a short presentation of the present EC as 5.4. The sources are websites and the Consolidated Reader-Friendly Edition of the Treaty on European Union (TEU) and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) as amended by the Lisbon Treaty (2007) by Jens-Peter Bonde because of its accessibility Analysis This chapter (6.0) contains the analysis, which is based on a qualitative research of collected data from the interviews. The stakeholders questions are based on observations and experiences from the internship, while the questions to the people at the institutions are based on the questions to the stakeholders (Appendix I). The data are analysed in regards to the theories of pluralism and corporatism. Additional material from the chapters in this thesis and from websites, and Schendelen s book are used. The point with the collected data is to base the analysis on the stakeholders and the people at the institutions own experience of the lobbying arena in Brussels, since this can vary in regards to the stakeholders interest and the lobbied persons position and institution. To base the analysis on the interviewed persons own stories was inspired by Bryman s (2012: 582) narrative analysis. The purpose was also to increase the transparency of the data by avoiding form being taken out of context and with the aim to make the analysis as objective as possible. There are a number of people who have write about this topic, but it is very different to experience it first-hand and the aim of this thesis is to recreate that experience. An analyse model are used with the purpose to make the collected data more tangible and by that increase the transparency of the subjects in order to find the information to answer the problem formulation. This is done through a model which is based on categories of the subjects of the interview questions. The model is divided into two subchapters where the first is the categories of the stakeholders and the second is the categories of the people at the institutions. 6.1 The categories of the analysis model for the stakeholders are: o Who and how the stakeholders lobby o What obstacles are there o The main difficulties 6.2 The categories of the analysis model for the people at the institutions are: o Which stakeholders do they meet o The approaches the stakeholders use 5

6 o Are all stakeholders and interests equal o What influence do the stakeholders have Conclusion This chapter (7.0) contains the conclusion, which main purpose is to answer the problem formulation as accurate as possible. The aim is to find information in regards to the problems and issues the other stakeholders eventually experience that the stakeholders within animal welfare may not experience and by that an additional dimension would be achieved. The aim of the conclusion is also to be able to present eventual recommendations (7.1), not only for the stakeholders within animal welfare, but for all the stakeholders. 2.4 Sources The sources used in the chapters have already been introduced in the presentation of the chapters and will therefore not be repeated here. But additionally information is necessary because there are sources which do not have page numbers and is the reason for the absence of these. There are also sources where the date is absent and in these occasions a number has been added instead e.g. the European Commission (1) where the number is added instead of date and year depending on the type of source for clarification in the references. 2.5 Qualitative method The qualitative method was in this context used as the research method to find the empirical material here in form of interviews. The qualitative method was chosen over the quantitative because interviews covered the subject more thorough than surveys would have enabled. The purpose with the interviews was to achieve as much information about the persons experiences about the subject as possible where a face to face method was thought to increase depth in the information. The description is based on Social research methods by Alan Bryman. The type of interview performed in the research is semi-structured with open ended questions. The purpose of using this type of interview technic is that the same series of general questions have been asked to the stakeholders and the people at the institutions respectively, but enabled additional questions to clarify matters or to achieve further depth of the responses. All the stakeholders have been asked the same questions, but since the questions were open ended there was an opportunity for the person to make interpretations and by that the answers and the length of the answers to the questions varies a lot. The participants at the institutions were asked another series of questions, 6

7 which was based and correspond to the stakeholders, but were the same for all and also with an opportunity for interpretation and where additional questions for clarification or to increase depth were asked and by that the answers vary here as well. (Bryman 2012:2012) The idea with the interviews where to examine the stakeholders experiences of lobbying the EU institutions and if the experiences depended on the subject they lobbied. This was due to difficulties with lobbying animal welfare where some institutions where hard to access and to achieve attention. It was therefore interesting to examine other stakeholders experience with the EU institutions, who were lobbying other subjects than animal welfare to be compared. In order to cover as many angels as possible of the topic, people from the institutions and their experience with the stakeholders and the lobbying in Brussels where also examined, and to give them the opportunity to share their view and experience. It was unfortunately not possible to achieve interviews with all institutions, therefore only the most accessible people are included in this thesis (see chapter 4). The choice of people to interview was based on the subjects and it was necessary to establish the difficulties of lobbying animal welfare first of all. Most of the stakeholders are therefore within animal welfare i.e. 3 from animal welfare NGOs and 4 from Eurogroup to establish if the experience differed. The reason for interviewing 4 people from Eurogroup is that they all have their specialities and therefore the experiences differ slightly, which increased the information. Data, which are stating the same from all of them, are excluded to avoid repetition. Then to establish the experience of stakeholders lobbying other subjects, there are 1 from an environmental NGO and 1 from an environmental federation, 1from a cooperative association, 1 from an Association of the EU cities and 1 representing the agriculture sector were chosen. Environment and agriculture are related to animal welfare, and cooperatives through consumers and human health. The cities are included to establish the experience of a different area compared to the others to establish if it makes a difference. Moreover, environment and animal welfare are soft values, while agriculture and cooperatives are businesses, although, these also lobbying soft values as well, agriculture is defending the farmers and cooperatives the consumers and cooperatives are consumer owned. The wish was to include more institutions, but could not be achieved. Therefore, the 2 MEPs and the official from the EC agency interviewed are accessible people and cannot be seen as representing the majority of people working in the EU institutions. The reason for the interview with the Swedish Perm Rep was to include the MSs and another important channel to influence. 7

8 The qualitative method has been criticized for being too subjective because it relies too much on the researchers view and also because of the personal aspect where the researcher and the interviewed create a relationship to a certain extent by the face to face method. It is also criticized for being difficult to replicate, which according to Bryman can be difficult in any form for social science, since it is unstructured and relies on the researcher s resourcefulness. The lack of standard procedures also makes it more or less impossible to replicate. This is due the investigator in the qualitative research is the principal instrument in the collection of the data and the data is affected by what the researcher observes and hears, and then the decisions are based on the researcher s predisposition. It is also due to its small size of the people taking part and who are from certain organisations and within a certain area creates problems with generalization and therefore restricts the data, although, 17 interviews were made here. It can also cause a lack of transparency because the exact method is not known or how the conclusion has been achieved. (Bryman 2012: ) The qualitative research in this thesis is of course no exception despite the author s aim to be as objective as possible and to make it as transparent as possible, but selections are hard to avoid. The method to use the people interviewed own experiences and to let them tell the stories themselves was therefore seen as a possibility to increase the objectivity as much as possible. It should therefore be possible to replicate at least up to a point. The questions can always be replicated, but the replies depend on what kind of stakeholders and institutions are approached and the subject has to be the same. It probably also depends a lot on if the same people interviewed for this thesis want to be included again, considering their busy schedule, it is doubtful. The method is otherwise pretty straight forward, as described in this chapter. Additionally, the data was collected first due to the internship in Brussels, which created the possibility for making these interviews and would have been more or less impossible to achieve after the internship had finished. Especially, since interviews where made over one and a half month time and the internship at Eurogroup increased the possibilities to reach people for interviews. This leads to the theory. 8

9 3.0 Theory This chapter presents the theories of pluralism, and corporatism, and the interest representation in the EU. Pluralism and corporatism stands for the theoretical part, while interest representation is of importance for the context of the lobbying arena and the competition in it. The competences of the EU institutions are also included here, since it has affect on the lobbying. First a clarification of the concepts: Lobbying activity is referred to as Public Affairs (PA) and the managing as Public Affairs Management (PAM); lobbyists as PA managers, interest groups and stakeholders. Schendelen (2013:60) states, The public affairs (derived from the Latin res publica) of an interest group are the threats and opportunities it perceives in its outside world, in short the external agenda it wants to manage PA is the threats and opportunities of an interest group and PAM appeared on the lobbying arena in search for techniques to influence the managing of the external agenda more efficiently, to protect and promote one s own interests strategically (Ibid 2013:60). 3.1 Pluralism and Corporatism The definitions of lobbying, pluralism and corporatism in this context are referred to as: The definition of Lobbying: an activity stakeholders use in order to influence decision-makers to make decisions in the stakeholders interest. Lobbying is dependent on the people or groups or institutions, which are holding the power and the definition of a lobby group is a pressure group that in unorthodox ways tries to gather information and support (Schendelen 2013: 58). The definition of Pluralism: pluralism is the representativeness where all stakeholders despite diversity of interests shall be taken into account in the decision-making of the policy processes. The stakeholders are external actors, who are lobbying to influence the EU institutions from an external position. It is the stakeholders that approach the institutions to build relationships enabling influence from outside. The definition of Corporatism: corporatism is the relation between the decision-makers and stakeholders where some stakeholders are more integrated in the decision process than others e.g. by specific expertise. The process can by that be controlled by key interest groups with prioritised interests. The stakeholders are invited by the institutions to participate in e.g. expert groups or dialogues and thereby achieve influence from inside. 9

10 Pluralism is here used to establish an understanding for the democratic principles of lobbying the EU institutions, which are dependent on external interest groups in the decision-making where all interests are to be considered in the decision process. Simultaneously, the stakeholders compete for influence, but it should not lead to unequal representation of interests. Schendelen (2013: 302) states In this pluralistic setting many stakeholders are eager to develop their own networks, coalitions and cartels, in order to get a grip on the arena and its outcomes, but Even the most corporatist arena allows the insiders only limited control, as there are always challengers inside and many more outside. Although, an example of corporatism in the EU is that Bouwen (2002 in Greenwood 2011:14) found that large individual firms had a higher degree of access to the Commission than EU-level associations. Therefore, some stakeholders achieve an advantage over other stakeholders, who cannot compete under the same conditions decreasing the chances of influence. And according to Greenwood (2011:14) if stakeholders are not in line with the EU institutions view on the liberal market integration; they can find themselves surplus and by that need to re-evaluate their own values before being reconsidered. This strengthens the corporatist theory that there are interest groups within the market that are prioritised by the EU, while excluding interest groups from the playing field with other values than the EU s own. Pluralism and corporatism is here discussed in regards to the interest representation in the EU institutions decision-making. Pluralism constitutes the framework of representative democracy and itemizes the role of the interest groups as the participatory democratic supplement in the decisionmaking. The EU is dependent upon participatory channels due to weaknesses in the representative channel, which is caused by the low number of EU citizens participating in the EP elections and the lack of common identity amongst them. Thereby a link between civil society and the political institutions is missing and civil society is replaced by interest groups acting as agents of accountability. These become substitute in the democratic mechanism by dominating the contribution to the participatory channel. That civil society is not participating weakens the pluralism in the playing field and therefore only the interests of the interest groups are represented. The question to the EU institutions high dependents and the interest groups institutionalization is to what extent the interest groups can be the connection between civil society and the institutions. This is also in regards to which interest wins and in whose interest, which may not be in the interest of civil society as a whole. (Greenwood 2011:1, 13, 208) 10

11 3.2 Interest Representation The EU s dependents on interest groups are also due to the EU s own character where it is primarily oriented toward regulations to create legislative harmonization in the MSs. According to Lowi (1964 as quoted in ibid 2011:2) regulation can concentrate costs and benefits narrowly upon particular stakeholders, often of a highly technical nature, thus making organized interests significant political actors. This signifies corporatism, since it builds a relation between the decision-makers and key stakeholders, who can use the internal position to their advantage. Greenwood (2011:3) strengthens this argument by stating Representative democracy has election results as a means to aggregate popular preferences, whereas there is no equivalent in participatory democracy, leading to the danger that well-organized, knowledgeable, and resourced groups might dominate public policy agendas. This also limits the EU system by creating sensitivity to pressure from external interests in regards to direct accountability, especially, in regards to technical information where the regulation can be captured by stakeholders with specific knowledge. This strengthens the notion of corporatism and creates challenges, since the principle of representative democracy should reflect the variety of participating interest groups, but here it is a risk that only the elite of stakeholders are involved in the policy making. This needs to be addressed where check and balance is to ensure a wider participation, but such pluralistic efforts can be hard to achieve within complicated technical issues. Even though, the check and balance should establish that no specific interests can dominate the political system where other agents can put pressure upon the accountability of these stakeholders. (Ibid 2011:2-4) According to Greenwood (2011:6) A complex multi-level system such as the EU intensifies consensual outcomes, and the need for alliances, in the search for solutions of any kind, and information about the potential for solutions. In regards to the consensual outcomes, the policy outcomes in the EU are consensual in their nature and therefore connected to alliances. This is because in consensual systems there is no the winner takes it all and by that alliances are needed to increase influence on the proposals. Since the EU seeks information from interest groups e.g. business PA managers seek dialogue with NGOs, especially within subjects that are popular with the public. This is to be perceived as a part of the solution and not a cause of the problem, but could also be because of mutual interests where an alliance can strengthen the influence gaining both. In regards to the search for solutions, a pluralistic view should be preferable, since acquiring information from several of interest groups would create a wider knowledge in finding potential 11

12 solutions. The EU institutions are also provided with information from interest groups in regards to the potential for a proposed legislation to have a successful outcome. (Ibid 2011:6) Since the EU s decision-making is dependent on external interest groups, transparency is of importance to uphold a democratic pluralistic arena. To ensure this, the EP and the EC have established the European Transparency Register (ETR), which is a publicized database where the stakeholders have to register in order to influence the policy-making. But Greenwood (2011:8) argues that there is not a definitive list of how many stakeholders or what kind of stakeholders that is active, which the system depends upon in order for the stakeholders to uphold democratic functions. According to the ETR (Europa 2) there are 9112 entries on the 16/04/2016 in the register, but Greenwood (2011:8) states, amongst others, that it lacks a governance mechanism and is too open for entries of all kinds. There are even organizations that have not signed up despite being active stakeholders. There are also different categories to register under and the organizations can make the categorization of their choice, which creates a misleading number of organizations. The democratic intentions with the register are thereby weakened. (Ibid 2011:8-9) Greenwoods critique of the ETR seems to be justified because the EP has called upon the EC to make it mandatory by 2017 for lobbyists to reveal their budget and methods in the register, and to make it difficult to be active if not registered (EuroActive 16/04/2014). The EP in its turn has accreditation for entering its premises and it is only issued to stakeholders that are registered in the ETR (Europa 4). The EP has the exclusive rights to grant requests for access and the applications must be submitted via the ETR (Europa 5), which should increase the transparency. There are also regulations for the EU institutions officials and include the rules of conduct when meeting with stakeholders, and should reflect the pluralistic structure. Article 11 (96) states: He shall carry out the duties assigned to him objectively, impartially and in keeping with his duty of loyalty to the communities (Staff Regulation 2004: I-8). The objectivity and impartially should maintain pluralism and avoid the process being controlled by key stakeholders where there are also rules to prevent corruption An official shall not without permission of the appointing authority accept from any government or from any other source outside the institution to which he belongs any honour, decoration, favour, gift or payment of any kind (.) (Ibid 2004: I-9). This leads to the interest representation itself where the solid competition for the decision-makers attention makes a presentation of the stakeholder scene relevant. The stakeholders are many, which 12

13 create a solid competition due to the pluralistic environment of the EU where the stakeholders have to compete for the attention, but all are not included here. The main stakeholders interests include business and professional interests, labour interests, and citizens interests such as environment, consumer, animal welfare, human rights, etc. There are also territorial interests and organized civil society and European integration. The cross-sectorial interests are represented by large resourceful groups with economic interests such as Business Europe (national business associations), the European Round Table of Industrialists (ERT) and the EU Committee of the American Chamber of Commerce (both based around large corporations), European Association of Craft, Small and Medium sized Enterprises (UEAPME), the Confederation of national associations representing small and medium enterprises (SMEs), the Associations of European Chambers of Commerce and Industry (EUROCHAMBRES), the representation of national associations of Chambers of Commerce, the European Centre of Employers and Enterprises providing public Services (CEEP), the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), and the European Council of the Liberal Professions (CEPLIS). This is a strong representation of economic interests with market expertise, which is of interest for the EU. It therefore risks creating a corporatist relation between these stakeholders and the institutions where these stakeholders become more integrated than others in the policy process. (Greenwood 2011:13-15) In regards to the representation of citizens interests, the representation is by related family networks such as the Green Ten (10 of the largest environmental organisations), but also through two different kinds of organisation where one is based on representation of European membership organisations such as the Platform of European Social NGOs and the other are more based on advocacy representing a specific sector e.g. the European Citizens Action Service (ECAS) for European Citizens rights. The sectorial organisations are of a more federative structure and also include trade unions and some of the business organisations based on national business association. Although, these are large organisations all of them do not have interests based on economic values, but on soft values and in order to maintain the pluralistic structure, the EU supports some of these stakeholders with economic funding. The reason is to prevent more resourceful stakeholder to dominate the political system where fragmentation of power exists to a high degree. The funding should enable these stakeholders to challenge the interests of producers by empowering different kind of interests. This is to establish a pluralistic check and balance where the interests can be challenged by each other. It is also empowered to do so by procedures where the corner stones are transparency regimes and measures for participation such as the funding of citizen interest groups, 13

14 but also detailed rules in regards to consultation, seen in the officials code of conduct. (Greenwood 2011: 15, 22, 32) Moreover, the experience of working within the EU s pluralistic environment various amongst the stakeholders and depends on the traditions of the origin where e.g. the Brits are used to working outside the group in a pluralistic tradition, while the Germans are used to work in a more collective way out of a corporatist tradition (Greenwood 2011:17). Furthermore, the interest representation s practices are also driven by the institutions specific procedures e.g. who has the responsibility for the initiation of the policies, or if there are mechanisms in case of defaults that can halt the legislation from passing, etc. (Ibid 2011:7). This leads to the institutions competences. 3.3 The EU Institutions Competences The representation practices are connected to the competences of the EU institutions and the distribution of their power, which is of essence to know. According to Schendelen (2013:17) the development of the treaties through time has increased the competences of the EU institutions, which has changed the EU playing field. Previous, the EU policy competences where strongest within the markets e.g. competition, open market, agriculture, industry and environment (Ibid 2013: 17); the EC had the competence of acting as an agenda setter with proposals for legislations. The Council had the competences within Justice, Home Affairs, Security and Foreign Affairs. The EP had co-decision power equal to the Council on a limited number of areas within the market. But by 2012, the powers of the EU institutions increased and the EC s regime extended into the areas of e.g. Justice and Home Affairs and the EP s co-decision powers extended. (Ibid 2013: 17) The EU Council is the institute of heads of governments of the MSs with its own president. There are several of councils and levels below it, but the ones most relevant here refers to the General Affairs Council (GAC), which is chaired by a MS with a presidency which rotates every six month and the Council of Ministers (Council). The EU Council do not have legislative powers that can bind others. The ordinary Council has that power, and most decisions are in co-decision with the EP and its decisions are mostly based on QMV. The Council formally controls both the treaties and the legislative acts that follow (Schendelen 2013: 87) and by that has more power than influence (Ibid 2013: 103). (Ibid 2013: 77-78) The EC has 28 Commissioners and each has its own Cabinet. It has a president, who is in charge of the internal and external operations e.g. dividing portfolios to the Commissioners, set up the weekly 14

15 agendas, inter-institutional affairs such as the budget and working programmes. The decisions are made by simple majority. The policies are made by the EC s Director Generals (DGs), ca 25 plus 10 services. The Commissioners portfolios are often not parallel to the policy areas of the DGs and Services, which can cause conflicts of interest, but is solved by internal procedures. Some of the DGs have more power than others e.g. the Secretarial-General (SG), which serves the College and the Legal Service and can block proposals. The EC s agencies are specialized and decentralized entities that monitors and execute or regulate certain policies. The EC has (almost) the exclusive privilege to draft legislation, which prohibits the EP and/or the Council to do so formally. It also has become the largest producer of non-legislative acts (delegated and implementing) (Schendelen 2013: 80). Because of the EC s relatively small size, it outsources some of the policy work to national authorities, but also by in-sourcing externally e.g. have public consultations and setting up expert groups with people from interest groups (Ibid 2013: 92). (Ibid 2013:78-80) The EP has 751 MEPs including a president and operates by majority vote. The effectivity is challenged by the many different national parties represented. Almost all of the MEPs are a member of one of the seven political groups where the two largest are the EPP (European People s Party) and the S&D (the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats), which together have a potential of absolute majority. It works mainly through committees, which get their composition and competences through plenary decision. The groups inside a committee assign dossiers for plenary decision-making to one or a few members (called rapporteurs and co-rapporteurs), around whom the other groups nominate their shadow rapporteur (Schendelen 2013: 82). The EP has legislative powers over secondary legislation, not treaties, where it has codecision with amendment and veto equal to the Council and covers about one-third of the legislation. Its main procedure is still consultation. The full codecision procedure holds two readings plus, after a conciliation with key people of the Council and Commission (trialogue or triangle), a final third reading, and may require from the EP an absolute majority (Ibid 2013: 82). (Ibid 2013: 82) In regards to the EU playing field and its complexity, the EU is not typical in its design or how it works, and appears as a labyrinth. It is highly open and informal on its input side where the absorption for various interest and stakeholders are endless, but it is rigorous and formal on its output side when it comes to the enforcement of the laws. In the middle of this the various inputs transforms into common decisions, which are supported by competitive interest groups and approved by officials. A crucial factor is often time because of the tempo of the decision-making in 15

16 the EU where the EP and the Council s first reading in the codecision-making are often 12 month and if a second one is needed it is 22 month in general. The EP is known to be the most open and then the EC, while the Council is the most closed. Although, the MEPs are most in favour of receiving stakeholders from their own MS if they are not rapporteurs, while the EC is welcoming all stakeholders within all interests, and where the Council s backdoor is slightly open. Due to this, the EP appears to be the most pluralistic and the Council lean more at corporatist, while the EC is somewhere in between. Although, according to Schendelen (2013: 113) stakeholders do not only want the institutions to be open, they want them to be relevant by scope and domain of influence and therefore, they preferably contact the Commission that offers both. For the stakeholders, the key is to be present at all times, since they otherwise risk losing out. (Ibid 2013: ) Sum up, the EU has a pluralistic character, but with corporatist elements where well-resourced and knowledgeable interest groups can have advantages over the less-resourceful interest groups without knowledge within certain areas. This creates a threat to the pluralistic structure where some interest groups risk to be excluded from the decision-making and by that lose influence on the policy outcomes. Therefore, th EU has created tools in form of check and balances of each other s activities. How this is working in reality for the stakeholders interviewed in this thesis is to be discussed in the analysis chapter. This leads to the presentation of the interviewed stakeholders and the people at institutions. 16

17 4.0 Introduction of the people interviewed in Brussels This chapter presents the people interviewed for this thesis. The stakeholders organisation is presented first and then the interviewed. The stakeholders are presented first, 4.1 and then the people from the institutions, 4.2. It starts with the animal welfare organisations. 4.1 The stakeholders Eurogroup for Animals (Eurogroup) is the European Federation of the Animal Welfare NGOs in Europe and has 49 member organisations (MOS) where most of the MSs are presented, except Cyprus, Portugal and Slovenia. It also has MOs in Switzerland and Norway. It mainly represents the MOs interests in the EP where it runs the secretariat of the Intergroup for the Welfare and Conservation of Animals, since 1983, which is a cross party group of MEPs interested in animal welfare. Eurogroup was set up in 1980 by an initiative of the RSPCA, who saw that the EU had potential to promote animal welfare European wide. It has a staff of 13. (Erler, Feb 2016) It is registered in the ETR with activity cost of 100, ,999; it lobbies soft values and is committed to how animals are treated and kept in Europe. It has 8 registered lobbyists and with EP accreditation (ETR1). It has a subdivision registered as Eurogroup for Wildlife and Laboratory Animals with 1 lobbyist and 3 with EP accreditation; activity cost of 10,000-24,999 (ETR 2). Interviewed participants: Andreas Erler, Senior Political Officer and runs the secretariat of the Intergroup of the EP Lina Christensen, Senior Program Manager and Deputy Director Elena Nalon, Program Leader for Farm Animals and a veterinarian Joe Moran, Public Affairs Advisor and Program Leader for Companion Animals Compassion in World Farming (CIWF) works for the welfare of farm animals and is a member of Eurogroup. It was founded in 1967 by a British farmer concerned with the growing disconnect between modern agriculture and the well-being of animals and the environment (CIWF 1). CIWF has offices around Europe and in the US. It is present at decision-making forums such as the WTO and the UN and has partners and supporters all over the world. It is an influential NGO. It has an office in Brussels with a staff of one, but otherwise it is the UK that lobbies the EU. (Stevenson, Jan 2016 & CIWF 1) It is registered in ETR; it lobbies soft values to end cruel factory farming practices with 16 registered lobbyists and 3 with EP accreditation; activity cost of 50,000-99,000;; (ETR 3). Interviewed participant: Peter Stevenson, Senior Policy Officer and a lawyer (UK) 17

18 Vier Pfoten International is an animal welfare organisation, which was established in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Romania, and is member of Eurogroup. It expended and established Four Paws, which has offices in Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, Romania, Switzerland,, the UK, the US, South Africa and Sydney (Australia), and active in Hungary and the Netherlands (Four Paws 1). The office in Brussels runs the European Enforcement Network of Animal Welfare Lawyers and Commissioners (1) project. It has a staff of 3. (Sultana, Feb 2016) It is registered in ETR; it lobbies soft values in all animal related issues and within animal welfare with 3 registered lobbyists and 2 with EP accreditation; activity cost of 100, ,999; (ETR 4). Interviewed participant: Pierre Sultana, Director of the European Policy Office and a lawyer Human Society International/Europe (HSI) is the international arm of Human Society US (HSUS), which is 60 years old and HSI is 25. HSUS is represented in all the US states and has offices all over the world. HSI Europe has an office in Brussels with focus on the EU institutions, but also the MSs activities by collaborating with local NGOs. It works with CITES, CMS, IWC, etc. and also with the EU institutions and MSs for the protection of species. HSI works on international level e.g. with banking institutions, the EU developing bank, global institutions, etc. to influence the EU policy and the international free trade policy. The EU ban on seal fur was the main campaign and made it well known. It has been active in Brussels for 15 years. It has a staff of 4 plus uses people from the HSI. (Swabe, Feb 2016) It is registered in ETR; it lobbies soft values within animal welfare policy issues in the EU; 4 registered lobbyists and 6 with EP accreditation; activity cost of 200, ,999 (ETR 5). Interviewed participant: Jo Swabe, EU Executive Director World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is the leading organisation in wildlife conservation and endangered species, founded in 1961in Switzerland. It is global with more than 5 million members (WWF 1) It is has an office in Brussels, the WWF European Policy Office, with a staff of 40 plus extra staff with various teams such as a Climate Change, Marine team, etc. It works with development of policies within substitute program, use of natural resources, etc. (Gerritsen, Jan 2016) It is registered in ETR; it lobbies soft values with the ultimate goal to stop the degradation of the planet; 33 registered lobbyists and 11 with EP accreditation; activity cost of 2,000,000-2,249,999; funds: 588,000 (ETR 6). Interviewed participant: Erik Gerritsen, Policy Officer within Water and Protected Areas policy 18

19 European Environmental Bureau (EEB) is the largest federation of the environmental organisation and has 150 members, also from outside the EU. It was created in 1974 as the first NGO in Brussels. It covers a broad area of issues e.g. water, chemicals, air, etc. It was created by the EC because of the intensive lobbying in Brussels where the EC wanted the environmental NGOs to speak with one voice. EEB represents 15 million citizens and has a staff of 30 in Brussels and has lobbied since (Defossez, Jan 2016) It is registered in ETR; it lobbies soft values, and follows and engages in a very broad range of EU policy areas within the environment and sustainable development; 17 registered lobbyists and 11 with EP accreditation; activity cost of 3,250,000-3,449,99; funds: 1,114,000 (ETR 7). Interviewed participant: Faustine Defossez, Senior Policy Officer of Agriculture and Bioenergy European Farmers and European Cooperatives (Copa-Cogeca) is an umbrella organisation representing the agriculture sector. It is divided between COPA representing farmers, producers and farmers organisations, and COGECA representing European cooperatives, but with the same secretariat. It represents 26 MSs with a high number of members. Copa-Cogeca represents the farming community, but also sectors such as the meat, crops, wine, breeding, etc. Its strength to be a representative of a large sector and been in Brussels since the 1950s. It has a staff of about 50 and is divided into teams of people working on the policy area. (Azevedo, Feb 2016) It is registered in ETR as European Farmers, COPA (ETR 8) and European agri-cooperatives as COGECA (ETR 9); it lobbies agriculture and the agriculture market; 18 registered lobbyists respectively and 9 at COPA and10 at Cogeca with EP accreditation; activity costs of 1,000,000-1,249,999 respectively (ETR 8-9). Interviewed participant: Daniel Azevedo, Senior Policy Advisor at COPA. Euro Coop is an umbrella organisation for consumer cooperatives and has members in 19 European countries. Its mission is to present the interest of its members in the EU institutions and to have the cooperatives specificity recognized where it is hard to compete with private supermarkets. Cooperatives are owned by the consumers, who have the right to vote and Euro Coop therefore functions with the mechanism of its members vote. It was set up in (Zilli, Feb 2016) It is registered in ETR; it promotes the economic and social objectives of cooperatives; 5 registered lobbyists and 3 with EP accreditation; cost of activity of 400, ,999; funds of 2,500 (ETR 10). Interviewed participant: Rosita Zilli, Deputy Secretary-General 19